Grammy Brouillette’s French Canadian Meat Pie (Also known as Tourtière) –

Recipe makes TWO French Canadian Meat Pies

For French Canadian Meat Stuffing – Make half the recipe.

If you prefer having extra stuffing, prepare recipe as written. Warm in a covered casserole.

Grammy Brouillette’s French Canadian Meat Pies – Christmas 2016 According to my sons (and my twin brother) these were the best pies yet!

This recipe is my mother’s mother’s and has been handed down for from mother to daughter for who-knows-how long. (My grandmother (Memere in French, but we called her Grammy) was born in Quebec in the late 1880’s. She and her family moved to Boston when she was young. Of course our family thinks our handed-down recipe is ‘The Best French Canadian Meat Pie’.. but everyone believes their family recipe to be The Best! Today most recipes call for a mixture of groundbeef and pork. In the Old Days, Tourtierecould be made using pork, beef, rabbit or other game, or, possibly, a mixture of different meats – whatever was available.

French Canadian Meat Pie – or Tourtiere – recipes can vary quite a bit from family to family – and each family believes theirs to be the best!! I’ve found it extremely interesting just how many variations there are between different family recipes. My mother’s family uses ground pork, potatoes, onions – plus salt & pepper. My husband’s family only uses hamburger, onions, salt & pepper and a bit of cloves. And an aunt on my father’s side puts crushed cracker crumbs in her meat pies instead of potatoes. I’ve found it doesn’t matter whose recipe you follow – to me, they’re all delicious!

“à chacun son goût” – – ‘To each his own taste”

As far as seasonings go,except for salt & pepper, most of the flavor in Grammy Brouillette’s recipe comes from the ground pork, potato and onion mixture. My mother and my Grammynever added any spices, but I like to add a bit of poultry seasoning (Bell’s). Some meat pie recipes call for a bit ofallspice, cloves ormace.Feel free to add/adjust seasonings to suit your own family’s tastes. And – if you’re lucky enough to live in Quebec – you can buy Meat Pie Seasoning!

Meat Pie is traditionally served on Christmas Eve (Réveillon) and New Year’s Eve. Our family still continues that time-honored tradition, and we look forward to it every year. I usually make four pies – two for Christmas Eve and one for each of my twin sons to take home. (And this year I’m going to ‘try’ to be organized and make the pies ahead and then freeze them.)

Joyeux Noel et une Bonne Année !!

Oven at 400 F

Ingredients & Method

2 large potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes (About 2 1/2 cups)
2 1/2 lbs. ground pork ++ If you prefer, substitute ground beef for ground pork. Buy 80% lean. ++ You also have the option to use half ground beef & half ground pork.
2 cups chopped onion
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/8 – 1/4 tsp. poultry seasoning – I like Bell’s. ++ If desired, add a bit ofallspice .. or a bitofmace .. or a bit ofground cloves.

crust enough for TWO pies – – – – – – 2 top crusts & 2 bottoms crusts

one beaten egg – to spread on the 2 top crusts

– – – –

In a medium saucepan, cook the potatoes in a few inches of water until fully cooked. Once cooked. drain and mash. (Don’t add any butter or milk !!) Set aside.

In a large frying pan, cook the ground pork and onions until the pork is no longer pink and the onions have become fully cooked – perhaps 10 minutes or so. Whilecookingthe pork and onions, break up the pork so you have crumbles and not hunks. (If you don’t have a big enough frying pan, cook the pork and onions in two batches.)

Grammy Brouillette’s French Canadian Meat Pie (Also known as Tourtière) – – Filling Can Be Used as a Stuffing (2024)

Grammy Brouillette’s French Canadian Meat Pies – Christmas 2016 According to my sons (and my twin brother) these were the best pies yet!